This blog is all about economic and financial events happening in Mongolia.

Monday, February 10, 2014

Mongolian banker accuses western media of biased reporting

ULAN BATOR, Feb. 7 (Xinhua) -- The head of one of Mongolia's largest commercial banks has accused foreign partners of spreading biased and unproven stories through western media. Golomt Bank executive director Ganbold Galsan told local media he was "surprised" media outlets such as Reuters and Bloomberg covered stories "based on biased, one-sided and unproven materials" concerning loan disputes between the bank and its foreign partners.

The Reuters and Bloomberg articles carried accusations Golomt Bank had breached a loan contract and had been asked to return loan funds by Switzerland-based Credit Suisse Group and Stanhope Investment, owned by Abu Dhabi Investment Council, which had extended 35 million U.S. dollars as a convertible loan to the Mongolian bank since 2007.

The reports also noted Golomt was sued by Itochu Corp of Japan in 2012 for not paying letters of credit worth 43 million dollars.

Ganbold said Reuters and Bloomberg reported these disputes "from one side," as "the issues related to Itochu and Credit Suisse have been fully settled" and disputes with Stanhope Investment were only a result of the two sides'"different understandings about implementation of the contract."

"Foreign investors should share high risks if they want to make high profits" in Mongolia, the senior banker said, adding it was "wrong to exaggerate the dispute over the loan contract", which amounted to less than 1 percent of the bank's total assets.